M1530 Triple Boot! XP, MediaDirect, Ubuntu

I was looking for a nice alternative to Vista, so I thought, why not go with both XP and Linux? I found this guide online for vista and the m1330: Triple Boot M1330. I figured it couldn't be that much different for XP and the M1530, so I gave it a go, and everything seems to be working fine.


If you'd like to do the same, here are the 'tutorials' that I used:
1: Start with this
2: Use this as a guide for XP (except for the Touchpad, get the R166314.exe driver from Dell, and don't use the one on that page.)


The only difference is that I did step 1 of tutorial 2 before anything else, and then re-enabled ACHI after installing the AHCI driver.

If you follow those steps, all should work fine. I didn't have any trouble installing anything but the touchpad, and so far everything seems to work fine. If you have your own XP installation routine, I'm sure it will work as well. The one I used, I found, was very painless.

Ubuntu is great on the M1530 as well. It automatically picked up the wifi and bluetooth, the volume/brightness buttons work fine, and it's a breeze to use.

Thanks to all who contributed to the info and tutorials to get XP going on the M1530, as they have been very helpful.

I'll edit this post when I have more time to test how things like HDMI, blu-ray, and all that other good stuff works in both XP and Ubuntu. Perhaps even some screenshots.

 

Great guide. I have a question for you. I currently have a160GB 7200rpm hard drive in my xps m1330. I plan on doing audio. such as PropellerHead Reasons 4.0 and Fruity Loops Studio along with Sonar and Protools. Do you think it would be good for me to upgrade my hard drive to the samsung drive that has 320GB of hard drive space. Keep in mind the Samsung is only 5400 RPM will i take that much of a performance hit.

 

I honestly can't give you a straight-up answer on that. I would normally say that the 7200 RPM drive would be faster, but I seem to remember reading somewhere that because the 320GB drive has a higher bit density on the platters, that it reads more bits at 5400 RPM than a 160 GB drive (with a lower density, not just fewer platters) would at the same speed.

How this compares to the 160 GB 7200 RPM drive, I can't say.

For performance, I would say stick with the 160 GB drive. I don't have too much experience with the requirements of audio software, so I can't really say what would work best. Perhaps try searching the forums or starting a thread about it.

 

The difference in performance from a 7200rpm and 5400 rpm drive is usually not noticible. 160gb's extra is worth the occasional SMALL performance drop. The heat is better too.

 

That is very true.